Advertising spend went up across the world, except for Europe, during the third quarter of 2012, according to Nielsen's quarterly Global AdView Pulse report.

Total spending was up 4.3% to $139bn (£86.8bn) compared to the same three months in 2011, outpacing the 2.7% growth seen in the first half of 2012. But Europe fell by 4.8% in the quarter and by 3.4% over the nine months.

The report says that an influx in advertising investments drove growth in the Middle East and Africa (up 18.9% during the year to date), while the north American market surged by an impressive 10.2% in the quarter, due largely to rises in the car industry and services categories, resulting in a 5% nine-month rise.

"The Olympics, a major media event in all parts of the world, and the US presidential election helped drive investment up," said Randall Beard, global head of advertiser solutions for Nielsen.

Ad spend also grew in the Asia Pacific region, with a 3.5% increase in the quarter. This was helped by the recovery of China's advertising market after the previous six months of decline.

But in western Europe, which faced continuing economic instability, advertisers watched their budgets carefully. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the UK where the ad spend across the first three quarters of 2012 was $9.8bn (£6.1bn), down by 4.2% compared to same period the year before.